Loving a Friend
by Cotto
Summary: Summary: Please read, review/comment, and enjoy. Main Pairing: Elsa/Tara Maclay (friendship). Further Summary Inside. Mind Author's Notes. Warning: story deals with a mature topic, so I don't recommend anyone under the "T" rating of age on Fanfiction Rating systems reads this, but the actual judge is to be the child's parents. The mature topic it deals with is female homosexuality.
1. Encounters: A Card Game at Granny's

**9-13-15**

 **Loving a Friend.**

 _ **By James Carmody.**_

 **Disclaimer:** _I own none of these tales: Frozen, Once Upon a Time, Buffy the Vampire Slayer/Angel the Series. Frozen is the property (I believe) of Disney, Once Upon a Time is the property of Kitsis and Horowitz, and Buffy/Angel is the property of Joss Whedon. I will not accept a single red cent for this tale- this is just for fun, my own and that of others._

 **Characters:** _Elsa, Tara Maclay, and a few others._

 **Pairing(s):** _Anna/Kristoff (romantic- at this time they're married), Elsa/Kristoff (in-laws/friendship), Tara Maclay/most of the Scoobies (friendship- mostly), Tara/Willow (past intimate relationship.), Elsa/Tara (friendship, but also squabbles) Also: Elsa/Regina friendship Tara Maclay/Elsa._

 **Setting:** _Around Season 5 of Once Upon A Time, in Storybrooke, Maine, and for some odd reason, Tara's back... just go with it, don't try to reason it out- weird stuff like that happens in Buffy, anyways._

 **Story Notes:** _This:_ [text] _refers to mental communication: prayer, temptation, or telepathy._

 _Elsa here has the same orientation direction as she does in my story "Crosses"._

 _**Warning:** story deals with a mature topic, so I don't recommend anyone under the "T" rating of age on Fanfiction Rating systems reads this, but the actual judge is to be the child's parents. The mature topic it deals with is female homosexuality, but like any other of my tales that touch on that misbehavior (the actions), it is NOT an advocation thereof, and never will be. This tale is about how a friend confronts another friend when one of them is doing something wrong/about to do something wrong._

 _Also, like in "Crosses" it is a modern Royal AU, and Elsa is a Christian woman._

 _What prompted me to this pairing was a misunderstanding of mine in regard to another author's story's chapter summary in AO3._

 **Summary:** _Please read, review/comment, and enjoy. Main Pairing: Elsa/Tara Maclay (friendship). Further Summary Inside. Mind Author's Notes._

 **Chapter 1.): Encounters: A Card-Game at Granny's.**

 **Author's Notes Beginning Chapter 1.):** _Please, tell me what you think. This is, almost exclusively, friendship love between the characters... most traditional relationships in the series's occur in this tale- but the odd one is the main feature. The gist of this is how opposition is, in fact, an act of love when someone wants to do something wrong._

 **Takes place after Tara arrives in Storybrooke with Faith- running from some HSTs. Part of my "Adventures in Storybrooke" series. Roughly about seven months into the year that Season 5 takes place in OUAT.**

As Elsa walked into the diner, Tara looked at the clock. For the past few quarters of an hour; her boss, "Granny" as the older woman is known, had been sort of bugging the young blonde to take her break. This work-ethic had indeed endeared her to her employer, and Tara _really_ ** _really_** needed the money to make ends meet. Besides, the younger woman rather liked waitressing as a job, so this was essentially a blessing. The only flaw her employer had noticed on her personality was the fact that Tara was a very shy woman- and thereby prone to stuttering.

Upon seeing her friend walk in, Tara put away her apron and informed her boss "I'm going on break." Business was rather slow right now, and Granny knew well that Elsa had come in to visit a friend.

Tara had found waitressing to be fun, and besides, the job was a rather low-stress one for her; in addition to that, she found that she got access to a lot of gossip this way. Most of it was incredibly dumb, but a good part of it was fun. One of her discoveries was the fact that her newest friend, Elsa of Arrendelle, was prone to PTSD episodes that had meteorological properties. As someone familiar with magic herself, Tara was rather eager to help her out; and had referred her to checking in with a Doctor Archie Hopper she had met shortly after entering into the town. Tara had seen an advertisement for him around town, or heard offhand someone talking about him helping them, and Tara being Tara had immediately thought of Elsa and her PTSD symptoms.

It turned out that Elsa in her first visit to Storybrooke was far too busy to check in, but she knew well of him, and wanted to correct her emotional troubles... she just didn't have the time, and she seemed a little obsessed with finding her kid sister. Tara could understand, she had a elder brother and really wanted a quality friendship with him, but the continual bullying she had suffered at her family's hands precluded that possibility from ever happening.

Now that her country was straightened out, from the invasion, and her sister was happily married to Kristoff,,, Elsa had decided to return for a little visit to Storybrooke.

"You ready?" Elsa asked, leaning slightly on her right hip, and holding up a deck of playing cards in her left hand. They had scheduled this a few weeks before, and now really wanted to indulge in this encounter. She was wearing one of her favorite blue gowns- the one that looked like it had some properties of ice or snow itself... her hair, however, was tied up in a braided bun, and Elsa had a playful smile on her face.

"Just a minute, let me get my coat." Tara responded, not quite trusting the breeze out there on this particular late morning. You could make the case that Tara, being a girl from the southern United States for much of her adult life was less comfortable with the cold that Elsa,,, to whom this town seemed downright tropical- due to being from a nearly arctic village. These two had become fast friends. Little did they know; this day would turn out quite different and stress their friendship almost to a breaking point before it returned to normal for them.

Upon leaving the front door to Granny's, the two women sat down in the cafe area outside to play cards and basically play with eachother a little bit in a number of ways. "How's your roommate, Faith?" Elsa asked, unknowing that Tara had, in fact, effectively become Faith's owner (This being anything but OK- especially legally) by seizing the brunette's heart and, after pulling it out of her chest, setting it down next to her- to show her who's in charge of whom.

Tara shrugged a bit, then said "She's doing fine, that I know of. I don't keep tabs on her 24/7. I can't, really." and put down her card. The two of them were playing a simple card-game that Tara had taught Elsa called "war".

Elsa grinned at the thought of Faith; she had found the brunette to be simply gorgeous, and in a different reality... one where Elsa didn't care about her religious beliefs, she might well be trying to date Faith! But in fact, the young blonde queen was thankful for her Christian beliefs; they protected her from abusing her neighbors., and for that she was eternally grateful. Elsa didn't want to betray her religious treaty with the Lord found in the Testaments of Scripture- a treaty God had installed in humanity for many millennium.

She didn't know a thing about her playmate's orientation, but all along she suspected that something was different about herself; something was _wrong_ with her in the head- or so she thought. Ever since she was a little girl, only old enough to reason things out, she had had no interest in sexuality... then when she was a teenager; Elsa had found herself prone to fantasizing about girls! This, as you might imagine, terrified the young Catholic teen, so she threw herself only more-so into her schoolwork. Elsa had always been the scholar in the Arrendelle Royal Family, but now she was determined to at least drown her frightful ideas of kissing other girls completely in her mind; so that only her studies remained!

Elsa remembered _begging_ God for any help He might render in regards to this utterly _terrifying_ trait in her personality- the only thing that He seemed to answer in the form of was that her desire seemed to grow. Her first help came from her pastor, the Bishop of Arrendelle, who informed her that these desires cannot be acted upon, but aren't sins. "A sin is  always an action, even a word or thought is an action- albeit the action is consenting to the idea." he had told her.

When she wrote this out on paper, Elsa underlined the word "Consenting" for emphasis, and to this day she kept it in her pocket as a reminder of her consent overruling her desires; something that gave her hope and strength.

Elsa's PTSD was due, in fact, to her accidentally hurting Anna when they were both very young. This incident scared the young girl, now woman, and to this very day her ability to cope was directly tied to her kid sister. She was also overjoyed these days with the fact that she now had a brother by marriage- Kristoff was exactly the right guy for the job too- especially his caring for his new wife, Anna! This was the first marriage for either of them, and they were determined to make it work. Romance had been a scary matter for Elsa, particularly that ugly business with a certain Hans, thirteenth in line for the throne of the Southern Isles; and a true psychopathic jerk if there ever was one!

Hans had started out charming enough, but attempted _murder_ ruins the relationship very fast, as he _probably_ has discovered; thanks to his family scolding him for trying to murder her and her kid sister!

As for Tara, the only real reason why she had enslaved Faith was due to the fact that the two of them were stuck here and she didn't trust her, besides, Tara needed safety from Faith; who was known as a notorious psychopath... despite being incredibly beautiful- physically speaking... besides that ridiculous reason, Tara didn't know why she did what she did to her at all!

And if Tara's reason was ridiculous, her response to that inclination was even more of a non-sequitur: she had sat on Faith's stomach, plunged her hand into Faith's chest, tore the brunette's heart out, set it down next to her (now) slave's left shoulder, and spent the rest of the night "playing" with her new 'pet'... honestly: Tara was frankly disgusted with her actions, but she really felt trapped in this situation. "Playing" was a stretch, she was tormenting Faith in just about every way imaginable, including physical intimacy!

By accident, Tara's aura detection kicked in, and she, without being able to stop herself, read Elsa- it was at that moment that she realized that she loved her., not as a lover, but as close to a sister as she ever could! Tara pretty much swore, then and there, that if she could choose one woman as a sister, it'd be Elsa! This was friendship love, she realized, mixed with a degree of Agape or sacrificial love, and Tara found it to be the height of her delights yet!

Little did she realize, but Elsa deeply reciprocated Tara's friendship love of her; she would by the time the day was out, though! Regina Mills car took that exact same moment to decide to malfunction completely and die on the road, right in front of Granny's Diner! Tara Maclay saw a beautiful brunette woman get out of the driver's side door, walk over to the passenger-side of the vehicle, and proceed to kick the tire on the passenger-side front., swearing an expletive as she did so! Regina's life had, for lack of a better phrase, stressing her out: she was supposed to pick up Henry at school for some family time, and now she didn't know where to turn! Thinking quickly, she walked up to the payphone near the diner, put in some loose change, and dialed the Charmings, hoping to reach David.

Mr. David Nolan was increasingly concerned that his older child, Emma Swan, had permanently turned to darkness. He well knew that little Neal would want to spend some quality time with Emma, but with his daughter as the new Dark One; that's probably not the best design to implement, another problem was that Emma and Regina shared a son. Simply put: Regina had adopted Emma's son, Henry, when the boy was an infant- now that Emma had gone dark, this was even scarier for Regina. Something in the formally evil queen's heart was amazingly maternal, and didn't want him to have to suffer the loss of a friend he had in Emma.

Regina put the phone to her ear, and speaking into the receiver, she said "Hi... car malfunction... I'm going to need you to pick up Henry at school... yes, I well understand that you're concerned about your daughter... Listen, _Charming_ if you want to save Emma, you can't do it all in one fell swoop, you've got to move a bit at a time..." Tara caught sight of Regina and by now had this wistful look on her face., both women playing cards drowned out the conversation after that point, as they knew it was none of their business... but something in Tara's look told Elsa that Tara was beginning to crush on Regina!

"She's not like that." Elsa said, trying to buy Tara off of her desire for Regina Mills, and Elsa tapped the table to try to bring her friend back to the game they were playing.

 **Author's Notes End Chapter 1.):** _Sounds like a good place to stop here, the next chapter will likely be titled "Confrontations of Love" dealing with the disagreement between Elsa and Tara about physical intimacy and relationships.  
Please tell me what you think of this._


	2. Confrontations of Love: Part 1

**Chapter 2.): Confrontations of Love Part 1.**

 **Beginning Chapter 2 Author's Notes:** _This chapter will be divided into two parts, and will deal with mostly Elsa's friendships and her relationships with others in her community of Storybrooke, where she happens to be vacationing from Arrendelle. Please tell me what you think of this story._

After about a half-hour, Tara's lunch-break ended, and she had to get back to work- a very short distance away. Elsa had managed to convince Tara to return to their card-game, and the two of them had immense fun. As Tara left the table to return to her job, she asked Elsa to be ready to pick her up after work. Elsa said "I will, don't worry, my beloved friend, Tara." the two of them then embraced as female friends are prone to, and Elsa went on her way. During the discussions before Tara had to return to her work; Tara had told Elsa about her relationship with Willow and how it had come on the heels of a relationship between Oz and Willow- how she ended up in a fight in the school auditorium with Oz about Willow. Elsa said that Oz probably had conflicting feelings about this, and that's why he sent her the jumbled messages of "Run" and tried to run her down and hurt her- that made sense to Tara.

When Tara had left her at the table to get back to her shift, Elsa drove off, after the two of them had agreed to have Elsa pick up Tara after the other blonde's shift was done. Elsa drove to the supermarket, did some shopping, went to the home she was staying at, and then, as Henry's school day was done by now, she went over to see if she could visit with the young boy whom she considered a good friend of hers. This lead to an extremely upsetting encounter for the blonde woman.

When Elsa drove up to the Mayoral Mansion to visit with Henry, she spotted him seated on the front step and reading his schoolbook. She suspected that he hadn't been able to get into his home, but didn't know for certain. Indeed he had, he was just enjoying the nice day outside while doing his reading in a literacy book of his for schoolwork, and while he read, he listened to a radio-show that was going on that day: EIB- standing for Excellence In Broadcasting. Henry's interest there was to find out more about current events; from all angles that is. As Elsa sat down next to her friend, Henry Mills, she listened to the topics the radio-show was talking about on this fine day. After a while, she put her face in her hands and muttered "I wish they wouldn't do that, it makes us look bad." What she was referring to is the ways many homosexuals bully Christians by trying to use the courts to force them to violate their religious beliefs.

However, something about her sentence gave Henry a bit of a start; he'd already finished his homework, and had been enjoying listening to the radio with this friend of his, when he stood upright immediately and said, somewhat accusingly "You're one of them." It clearly was an accusation, and his statement hurt her, just a bit. He then immediately picked up his radio and he then headed into the house, as if hurt or shocked.

Elsa followed, frowning, a little alarmed. She had babysat him for a bit, while his mothers had to do other tasks, after befriending them, and the two of them had become pretty close friends, but never in his wildest imaginings had he ever considered that she was one of _them_! This horrified him. "Henry, come on." Elsa said, in a voice that she couldn't help had a tiny touch of whining, she was just so hurt about his accusation.

"Stay away from me!" Henry replied, upset by this realization, the teen headed to his room.

Elsa knew that she couldn't just turn her back on him right now; if she did, he'd never learn her real personality, and forever consider her some kind of, best (most accurate for these attitudes) term is "scum", a most unfitting term for her, so she headed to his room to try to talk to him through the door if necessary, and to reason with him. Oh, she well understood his views, and in some ways, she even supported them: sex outside of traditional marriage is fornication at _best_ (a disgusting mortal sin), and she, for better or worse, had no desire to ruin her soul's beauty by engaging in such a hideous sin as _that_! She knew all along that she had to avoid any kind of physical intimacy with other women, and as for men, she just _couldn't_ desire that with any of them, no matter how hard she tried to desire a traditional relationship of that of a wife to her husband... she did love babysitting Henry, however.

Elsa also understood this: she well knew that if she didn't talk him out of this, all he would be able to see her as is some kind of 'useful criminal' at best, and at worst, he'd actually _hate_ her for her sexuality! That was what she feared. Ironically, she supported the views of that talk radio show he had been listening to on his portable radio- fully and completely... the overwhelming reason for this is the desire to submit herself to the natural truth embraced by the views of the show's speakers, but she didn't like being hurt- who does? She wanted truth, she just didn't like being hurt., so... She followed him to his room because she really had no choice if she wanted to rescue her friend from his current temptation. When she reached the door, she found it was shut and locked. Resting her hand on the door after knocking, she tried to reason with him, to make him see that he was basically being very mean, and that this isn't at all the views of the show's host that he was falling into, nor would that man condone his deeply suspicious attitude of an ally of his in this effort to return reality to the world that was entering deeper and deeper into delusion- and further and further away from reality!

"Henry, please" Elsa begged, pleading with him to reason out his own attitudes about this matter in his own head, and praying to her Creator all the while that he'd think it through and return to friendship with her "think, have you ever known me to act on my desires?" She asked him.

Elsa heard a faint "No." from the other side of the door, as if the teenaged boy was facing away from the door, and for a moment she was scared that she had been rejected, then she heard him continue "I haven't known you to act up like that at all." it was clear to both the kind of 'acting up' they were talking about: sexual immorality.

Elsa couldn't help recall all those times Anna had been at her doorway, begging her playmate to return to spending time with her, and now that she was on the opposite side, she felt a twinge of guilt, wondering if this was some kind of preternatural punishment for locking her sister out of her life _"I only did that to protect her."_ the young queen thought to herself, then the continued _"She and I will have to talk these things out, as soon as possible, for the sake of our family."_ she continued. But that time wasn't this time; no, this time she was trying to bring Henry Mills to his senses- particularly about the difference between _consent_ and _desires_ , and how both play heavily _"As well as havoc."_ , the young monarch thought to herself, with one's temptations. Elsa knew well that Anna could have died if their playing had gone out of control again, that's why she had locked herself away from her sister. It had hurt, but it was a sacrifice she was more than willing to make to save her kid sis's life!

"Henry, please, let's talk these things out." Elsa begged, finally she heard the door unlock, and felt it... and she concluded that he had decided to let her into his room, and, she hoped, into his heart as a friend again. She waited for a few minutes, until she was sure he was back on his bed, resting before opening the door. Both knew well that he couldn't lose anything by talking with her, and that she had no intention of leading him astray _"I hate my desires for other women' s bodies."_ Elsa thought to herself as she went into this boy's bedroom and saw the thirteen year old teen laying on his bed, facing away from her. She sat down on his bed, gently, and placed her right hand on his left shoulder, intending to render a gesture of friendship to this handsome young man as he was turning out to be. He seemed, at first, a little freaked out by this, but apparently figured "What harm can it do?", or so she thought his attitude about her touch was. Elsa for her part felt like crying about a lost friendship. She'd had so many losses in her young adult life- this would be just plain too much!

The muscles under the skin of his face were rigid, and Elsa was scared that she'd bollixed up a friendship she definitely didn't want to lose- ever! "I don't blame you for hating my desires... I hate them, too. I have these desires, I definitely didn't _ask_ for them. I just have them." Elsa tried to explain, gently. Trying to reassure him that she was still the woman he had made friends with a little while ago on her first incidental trip to Storybrooke, and still his friend as well as his mothers' friend. Elsa clearly saw that Henry was a "Moses Character"- like the Biblical Moses, he too had two mothers, for both young men had been adopted... also like Moses, he was something of a "Liberator", in some sense, a 'redeemer' of a sort; for he had clearly helped to redeem his adopted mom from her dark and evil ways- as well as helping to redeem his biological mom by bringing her back to her responsibilities. Elsa was deeply afraid that he now hated her, in spite of her lack of consent to her sexuality- thereby favoring nature over choice/consent. That's what really hurt her and scared her. Yet there was no chill in the warm air this afternoon. That relieved Elsa immensely.

Elsa was beginning to think she had overcome her fear, once and for all, finally. She certainly didn't want to hurt her friends and neighbors... but this was scary: the idea that she'd just been cost a friendship because of something in her personality she certainly didn't select, didn't choose, and most definitely didn't desire! Elsa swallowed, terrified. So far Henry seemed to still accept her for herself, still care about her as a friend, so she felt confident that she could talk to him still. She took a deep breath and tried again, resolving to try again, and again, and again if necessary, until successful with this friend of hers.

Elsa pleaded with him "Please don't hate me, Henry." while keeping her hand on his left shoulder, begging him to remain her friend. She'd be so hurt if he now rejected her because of something deep-seated in her personality that she had never consented to, but had nonetheless. "Why do I have these urges in me?" she had written in a note to her Pastor once, as a young teen girl she'd handed to him after church one fine Sunday morning. That may have gotten her mother to write in her diary that what they'd "seen in Elsa is terrifying"; when in reality she had been a young teen girl crying out for help!

Elsa couldn't help sniffling a bit right now, even despite the fact that her parents had been searching for some means of removing her telekinesis about snow and ice, she still missed her mom and dad. Life itself scared the poor orphan queen; but what really upset her now was the fact that she was afraid that she had just been cost a friendship due to something that couldn't be her fault! That wasn't fair at all! She'd never acted on her sexual orientation, so why should she be equated with those who do? This just isn't fair- not one bit! Elsa felt like crying right at this moment- about the sheer injustice of the whole matter.

Somehow or another, further words were passed between the two of them, as well as the fact of her threat of tears breaking out, and the two parts seemed to work some kind of weird miracle: Henry's heart softened, just a bit, but he said "I don't hate you, Elsa. I understand.", and to her relief, he embraced her for a bit, but only as a friend.

Elsa then looked at his room clock "Is that accurate?" she asked him, concerned.

He glanced in the direction of her pointing "That clock?" he asked her. Upon observing her nod, he replied "Pretty much, give or take about three-to-five minutes. I can never get it exactly correct." he said, a bit frustrated with himself.

Elsa gave him a platonic kiss on the forehead, that caused him to freak for a bit. In response to his fear, she replied "Sorry. I didn't mean to scare you." then she changed the topic "I've got to get going... got to see Dr. Hopper for counseling. Truly sorry for scaring you earlier., still friends?" she asked him.

Elsa realized a few things about Henry right now, one of the key things about him she had just learned was that he is a stickler for exactitude, and cannot cope comfortably with loss of precision _"He'd make a fine Air Force Pilot."_ Elsa mentally chuckled to herself as she considered his perfectionism- she liked this new world she vacationed in, it could be a lot of fun. "Don't worry, Henry, time zones are _**never**_ all that accurate. Know why?" when he shook his head "No" she informed him "Because the Earth's round, so since time zones are basically on hour increments, they are going to be off, unless you're literally on the leading edge of your time zone." she explained. She then informed him that it was okay if he telephoned him with further questions if he had them for her, or anything else he wanted to discuss with her.

As Elsa left, Henry replied that he was a bit scared, but definitely didn't hate her. This relieved her but it also hurt that she'd frightened this friend of hers who was also a mere child compared to herself. She had handed him a written copy of her telephone number during their little chat, and once she had left, he called her on the phone, to ask her about her sources of her education- he was a tad envious, as it turned out, and he wanted to obtain a similar degree of information; especially since she was from a far more technologically primitive society- how'd she acquired such an amount of up-to-date information?

Elsa's counseling session with Dr. Hopper was quick, and when she got back home to her apartment, she found that the answering machine was flashing- indicating a message had been received and was waiting to be listened to. Upon hearing the message Henry had sent, the blonde woman put her right index finger up to her corner of her lips and thought _"This makes sense: Dr. Hopper says he believes I've got a genius level mind, so this will prove to be fun."_ to herself. She hadn't studied time zones in school, she had merely calculated this due to considering the rotation of the Earth and the fact that these zone boarders act like ridges on a surface, without impacting either movement nor light, so it only made sense to her- for the first time she felt genuine hope and satisfaction, thanks to both Dr. Hopper's comments and her own gifts- which far exceeded this weird meteorological gift she now regularly used for ice-sculpting and art; just to entertain her friends and neighbors.

Elsa also had a while longer to wait until she had to pick up Tara after the other blonde's work, so she decided to relax a bit and enjoy the situation of having made peace with Henry.

 **Chapter 2 End Part 1 Author's Notes:** _I'm most proud of this work I've done in this chapter part: especially how the matter between Elsa and Henry turned out- that was massively fun to do. The scariest part was the odds that the trajectory of the characters would hijack the story and take it way too far. I fully also support the attitudes embraced in the radio-show that I've got Henry listening to, in fact, this has to do with something I had heard some time ago on talk radio that inspired this matter between Elsa and Henry._

 _Elsa for her part doesn't support her desires- but she_ ** _is_** _attracted to other womens bodies in this story, she just hates that about herself. Don't worry, folks, there will be more... as for Henry, he is a kid, but a good one; his problem is that he overreacted to her revealing that about herself. Most kids are good, and that's something I'm trying to emphasize, he merely goofed a bit, and that lead him to overcompensate a bit and to thereby hurt Elsa's feelings._

 _Elsa's statement is when she says "I wish they wouldn't do that..." the next part is a confession of her sexuality- its this that freaks Henry out. He isn't entirely being very fair to her for a while after that, so she's basically crying out for justice. What she really wanted was to retain his friendship, so this frightened her._

 _I welcome your comments, constructive criticism is always so welcome- and of immense value._


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